WF09 Routes, Tracks and riding info.

This thread will show a number of day rides in the area around the West Fest 09 camping site. I will split the rides into three groups. Road rides, ADVrides, And Single track rides.

Road Rides will have mostly paved sections. The gravel sections will include highly improved unpaved roads. Just about any type of bike with a rider of any type of skill level should be able to do this route.

ADVrides, this will be everything between paved road rides and single track.

Single track, will be just that. You can ride your large bike down it. But I don't want to be around when you do.

A number of riders are stepping up to offer tracks. Please thank them for their efforts.

The GPX files of routes can be had by PMing me with your email address and the name of the route that you want. I will forward a route to you via email.

Lastly a little effort up front will reward you plenty. You have several months to plan, dream and ask questions bought a route or track. And it will not leave you stranded at the campground when you suddenly have to hit the head. And upon your return you discovered that everyone as left on your dream ride.

KTM barkbusters looking for an all day trail-bashing ride will be bored to tears.

Pavement for starters, then gravel, and progressively tougher off road, with a pavement route back.
I will be leading on a Kawasaki KLX350. 250's, 225's, are welcome. There will be sections that will really challenge no-experience riders, so think about that. This isn't for training. But riders with some experience will do well. Big GS's with average riders will also be OK.

It is about 200 miles, or more, so it'll be a long day.

I'd like to take on the task of collecting names much later, say, an April or May timeframe. I will also say that in '06 we had some 22 riders, and that's too many.

That said, I'm going to have probably 50 copies of my map available, and those that want to take off and go for it are welcome to copies.

This ride is mostly paved roads. Between Pikin and Tincup is Cumberland pass. The road up Cumberland is not paved.

This ride is about 140 miles in length. There is sometimes gas in Pikin. There is a small store for food and water. Tincup has a really great Restaurant and some small gift shops. There is gas over by Taylor Reservoir.
This ride could be done in both directions.

The ride starts off in Buena Vista. Take US 24 and 285 to Salida. Turn right on to US 50 and head over Monarch pass. Turn right at Parlin on Co rd 76. I think that this road is paved all the way in to Pikin. After Pikin head over Cumberland Pass and down in to Tincup. Then on to Taylor park and Taylor Reservoir. Turn right on to CR 209 which heads up to Cottonwood pass and back to BV.

There are many variations that one can take on this route. One really cool side trip is to take the Alpine Tunnel ride. You will see the sign for the Tunnel between Pikin and Cumberland pass.
Alternate routes in this area include
Taking.
Waunita Pass Rated easy for Adventure bikes.
Tincup pass Rated Unknown I&#8217;ve never ridden it.
Hancock pass Rated hard for Adventure bikes A lot of rocks.
Tomichi pass Rated Unknown I&#8217;ve never ridden it.

You can also explore Taylor park. The whole area offers some really great riding.

You can also explore Taylor park. The whole area offers some really great riding.

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Tim,

Tincup has become much rockier on the Tincup side recently. Tomichi, Hancock and Tincup are all more or less comparable. Good/Very Good skills on a big bike would be needed.

There's a fairly gnarly pass between Hancock Pass and The Alpine Tunnel Road named Williams Pass. Not for big bikes. Big mudhole and a very rocky climb up from the Alpine Tunnel road.

Other cool passes/routes in the area for more dirt bike-ish riding would be Pearl Pass (from Taylor to Aspen), Italian Creek (sort of parallels Pearl Pass), Taylor Pass (Taylor Lake to Crested Butte), etc. Loads of very challenging riding can be found nearby. These rides are a bit harder than Tomichi/Hancock/Tincup.

Working with some of Rick's maps. More information about this track is on Rick's web page.
First off is the track Crested Butte to Aspen.
I started this track off as one unit. It should be a great ride to go from Aspen to CB all in one ride. Then I split the ride up into two sections.

Profile for the entire ride.

As you can see there is some high country riding on this ride.

Here is a route for the entire ride.

Next I broke this ride up into two sections. I could have made it into 3 sections. With one section being the gunninson spur trail.

The first section is the track from the Taylor Park road to Aspen. This section of the ride starts on Taylor Park road witch is just on the back side of Cottenwood pass. The road starts off as a very high level graded gravel road. And eventully works it's way over toward Aspen. I have never ridden this route. So I can't give details. But I think that it is the same route that Geek, Shearboy2004 road last summer. The one where he spent the night on the mountain. Also I think that this was part of the WF06 long ride sponsered by Esteban. You could PM them on the details of the section of the ride.

Next up is the Gunnsion Spur to CB ride.

The Gunnsion Spur Single track trail starts off on the Taylor Park road. Over by Dinner Station Camp Ground. Right before you enter the camp gound you need to hang a left and follow the double track to a wooden bridge that crosses the Taylor river. Once you have that down the trail is just on the other side. I have heard reports of the Gunnsion Spur trail closing over near the end where it drops back down to the highway. I will check on this next summer. If needed I will post a different connecting route.
I am getting trail information on this area from Latitude40map. Map titled Crested Butte, Taylor Park.

Tincup has become much rockier on the Tincup side recently. Tomichi, Hancock and Tincup are all more or less comparable. Good/Very Good skills on a big bike would be needed.

There's a fairly gnarly pass between Hancock Pass and The Alpine Tunnel Road named Williams Pass. Not for big bikes. Big mudhole and a very rocky climb up from the Alpine Tunnel road.

Other cool passes/routes in the area for more dirt bike-ish riding would be Pearl Pass (from Taylor to Aspen), Italian Creek (sort of parallels Pearl Pass), Taylor Pass (Taylor Lake to Crested Butte), etc. Loads of very challenging riding can be found nearby. These rides are a bit harder than Tomichi/Hancock/Tincup.

I hope to be there this year.

Click to expand...

Thanks GP, I look forward to seeing you there.

Here is some more information about the passes that Gaspipe has written about.
Taken from guide To Colorado Backroads and 4-Wheel Drive Trails by Charles A Wells. ISBN # 13:978-0-9664976-6-3.
First up Tomichi Pass
This pass is over by BV between St. Elmo nad Sargents.
The 4-wheel drive leve is difficult. This rating is bsed on the narrowness of the trail rather than the road surface.
Distance is 11.9 miles

To get there Most people will first drive Hancock Pass. Trail #36 and turn left when they reach FS 888. You can also reach 888 from the Alpine Tunnel Raod 839.

Hancock pass
Hancock is rated as Moderate in this book. But it is fine example of what might be easy for trucks might be hard for bikes. Hancock pass has a lot of rock on it. It isn't to steep but the rock is a problem for some.

Length is about 9 miles form St. Elmo to the other side of the pass.

Head south of Buena Vista to the St. Elmo road. It will be signed. Head back toward St. Elmo. If you reach St. Elmo you have gone to far. The Handcock road is marked on the left side of the road. The road to Hancock is easy. But near the top you will turn onto a rocky section. This section is pettry much how the rest of the pass is. The climb to the top isn't to long. The decent back down is about 4 miles.

Tincup.
I have never ridden Tincup pass. So I can't speak about it. I would use Gaspipe's description as a good rule of thumb. Timcup pass starts off right in the town of St. Elmo. and heads over to the town of Tincup.

Road Ride
Some gravel but still can ridden by street bikes.
FYI some of the passes in Colorado are treated with a material that helps keep dust down. If you ride over these passes when they are wet. You should wash your bike ASAP.
The two that I know that are treated are CottenWood and Kepler. Both are routed on this ride.

This would be one of the main routes to the west of WF. It includes Aspen, Crested Butte, Pitkin Tincup and more. All in all it's a great ride. The length seems to be about 250 miles total.

Not sure the rules Tim? I don't want to tread on any toes but I could put something together like the following:

Looking at those maps going north west and south west so perhaps I'll lead a ride north east?

Geek's Big Thumper Thin Air Tour
It will be an 80% dirt, 20% paved.
I'll design it with several bail out points.
The ride will be aimed at 600-650 class bikes for maximum fun.
A KLR with an average rider will have a great time.
A GS with a talented rider.
Smaller bikes might not like the distances involved and none of the ride will be smaller than dual track (ie.. if I were on a dirt bike I'd be heading to Triad Ridge or something).

It'll depart north to Leadville and include:

1) 13,118ft on Mosquito Pass (no freakin' air! do it first while we're fresh) to BreckinRidge.

2) Up and over the super fun Humbug Hill (recommended by a man with no teeth) over to Georgia Pass.

3) 11,585ft on Georgia Pass (big fun dirt 2 track).*Potential Detour: then depending on the group we could detour here up some fun stuff...more below

then as people are getting tired the ride back would be the easy/scenic dirt roads of:

4) 11,482ft on Boreas Pass (an easy scenic dirt road).
and then
5) 11,921ft on Weston Pass (an easy scenic dirt road). Coming down the west side of Weston you have a view of the two highest peaks in Colorado - one of my favorite views!
(or we can cut Boreas out all together if time is short).

Dumping us out only a few miles from the camp site near Twin Lakes.

**Potential Detour: if we have a more accomplished group I can take them over Webster/Redcone/Radical Hill/Swan Creek after we've gone over Georgia. This would be an easy group split location where those wanting to get back can head easily back on easy dirt roads and those wanting a bit of a challenge can take the Detour. The Detour would require a very good rider on a KLR... an idiot on a GS It would be a full magnitude more difficult than Mosquito & Georgia (probably not flat-lander friendly) but if some are wanting we can include it since we'll be in that area and it is SUPER fun (and I've learned my lessons so we'd go down swan creek instead of up it ) **

...and I love all these trails so I'm happy to modify as a group would like.
...and if nobody is up for any of it.. no problem.. I'll go and fall down on Pearl Pass instead

Tincup.
I have never ridden Tincup pass. So I can't speak about it. I would use Gaspipe's description as a good rule of thumb. Timcup pass starts off right in the town of St. Elmo. and heads over to the town of Tincup.

Click to expand...

Tincup is Rocks Rocks and more Rocks
I've ridden over it on the Loser.. so its not too tough.

If you do decide to lead a group, which is what I also planned to do, we should coordinate days, one of us on Friday and one of us on Saturday. That way, anybody that comes to WF that wants to do this ride will have the opportunity. It seems to be a pretty popular collection of passes for the out-of-staters.

Splitting it up over 2 days also allows the groups to be smaller. 10 people is about the max group size I'm looking for.

RAMZ already has my tracks and should be posting the loop on his website in the next day or so.

I'm happy to not lead a group; I wanna try some of ramz's tracks out
...but I also am happy to lead one if the need is there. I can ride these areas any time during the summer so I'm happy to help out if some "non-locals" would appreciate a guide.

Where were you standing when you took this photo? I really want to do this ride.

pablo83 said:

This is the summit of American Flag Mtn looking north towards Aspen. It's about a 60 mile ride from Buena Vista. I'd love to lead a ride here, but I'm a WF noob so I don't really know what's involved. The route would be some pavement (Cottonwood Pass), mostly wide dirt roads (to Spring Creek Res.) maybe 5 miles of jeep trails that vary in difficulty, and one short hillclimb to finish it. Should I lead a ride here? Or would someone else like to lead and I'll navigate or something like that?

It's about 130 mi round trip. We'll stop to refuel in Taylor Park. A license plate will be required.

This trip would be best for a 250-550cc bike. There are steep rocky sections. The Forest Service rates one section of this trail as difficult (which is their hardest rating). An expert rider on an XR650L or a G650X Challenge would have no problems, but if this will be your first ride in the Rocky Mountains, this is probably not the ride for you.

The route would be some pavement (Cottonwood Pass); mostly graded two lane dirt roads (to Spring Creek Res.); 5-15 miles of jeep trails; a few miles of rocky singletrack; and one short, steep, rocky hillclimb at the peak. If you are hesitant about the hillclimb, but comfortable with everything else, come anyway. You'll probably do just fine on the hillclimb, but if not, you can wait for us at the saddle below the summit. We have to come back that way. I think most of this ride will be at about 45 MPH so your bike should be geared to comfortably run at that speed, although a comfortable 55 MPH would be better. Otherwise low gearing is best, particularly for the hillclimb.

I'm not exactly sure about the yellow section, this is an estimate as I did not have my GPS on the day I rode it. There is a marked trail here (either a quad track, or a jeep trail) but I can't find it on any maps. Also I have not done the section north of the peak, but it's listed as a jeep trail so it can't be too hard can it? If it is we can go back the way we came.

If we're still feeling peppy at the end of the day we can come back by Tincup or one of those other passes.

Here's a little more detail of the rough stuff:

Once again, here's the money shot. It will be fun to see how many bikes we can get out on the outcropping without anyone falling off.

And here's the hillclimb. The trail is steeper than I think this looks. That's Italian peak in the background. You can also faintly see the trail to the south traversing the opposite side of the canyon.